Avnøgård (Avnø), is a manor house and estate located in

Vordingborg Municipality Vordingborg Municipality (, ) is a '' kommune'' in the Sjælland Region, which is on the southeast coast of the island of Zealand in south Denmark. It was established in 2007. The municipality covers an area of 621 km2. It has a total popula ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. The estate was acquired by the Ministry of Defence in 1836 and turned into an airfield, Flyvestation Avnø. It was decommissioned when the airbase moved to

Karup Karup is a town in Viborg Municipality, Denmark. Sport The Uhrebanen is a motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over ...

in 1993. Part of the estate is now the site of a nature centre, Naturcenter Avnø.

History

In 1774, Vordingborg Cavalry District was divided into 12 estates and sold in a public auction. Avnø was sold to baron

Reinhard Iselin Reinhard Iselin (4 August 1714 – 10 April 1781) was a Danish merchant, shipowner and industrialist who founded Reinhard Iselin & Co. in Copenhagen in 1749. The company completed 65 expeditions to the Danish West Indies. Iselin was also active i ...

. He was the buyer of

Vordingborg Castle The Vordingborg Castle ruins (''Vordingborg Slotsruin'') are located in the town of Vordingborg, Denmark and are the town's most famous attraction. History The castle was built in 1175 by King Valdemar I of Denmark as a defensive fortress, and ...

(renamed Rosenfeldt), Snertingåaard samt Ladegaard (renamed Iselingen) after the estates had been sold. The buyer was Jens Lind, who later that same year sold the estate to Fredrik Hoppe. The next year Hoppe sold the estate to M. N. Friis. In the 1820s, Danish agriculture was hit by a crisis. In 1825, Avnø was sold to Jacob Staal. Staal's son, Hans Peter Staal, inherited Avnø after his father's death in 1851. In 1854, Avnø was purchased by Abigael Christine Bølle. At age 17 she married 64-year-old Jacob Bølle of Vintersborg on

Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the List of islands of Denmark#List of 100 largest Danish islands, fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Kattegat, Belts and Sund area, it is part of Re ...

. Her husband died in May 1845 and Vinterborg was sold to Frederik Anton Hastrup in 1848. In 1859, she ceded the estate to their son Jørgen Bølle. In 1861, he sold it to W. N. J. Benthien. Carl Arthur George O'Neill Oxholm, the owner of Rosenfeld, purchased Avnø in 1877. In 1904, he sold the estate to Jacob Søegaard. The estate changed hands three times over the following three decades. It was decommissioned when the air base moved to Karup in 1993. In 2004 the airfield's buildings and part of the land were converted into a nature centre. The main building was sold to Micki Friebel in 2990.

Architecture

The white-washed, two-storey main building dates from 1903. It was expanded in the mid-1910s. The older farm buildings are located to the west of the main building.

List of owners

* ( -1774) Kronen * (1774-1781)

* (1781-1803) P.G.A. Bosc de la Calmette * (1803) Jens Lind * (1803-1804) Frederik Hoppe * (1804-1824) M. N. Friis * (1824-1851) Jacob Staal * (1851-1854) Hans Peter Staal * (1854-1859) Abigael Christine Bølle * (1859-1861) Jørgen Bølle * (1861-1877) W. N. J. Benthien * (1877-1904) C. A. C. O'Neil Oxholm * (1904-1921) Jacob Søegaard * (1921-1922) Christensen * (1921-1922) Christian Iversen * (1922-1936) A. Prejsz * (1936-1993) Flyvestation Avnø * (2009–present) Micki Friebel

References

{{reflist Manor houses in Vordingborg Municipality Buildings and structures of the Oxholm family